The idea that there's a relationship between tea and wine, which is being promoted by India's most passionate tea aficionado, Sanjay Kapur of Aap Ki Pasand, seems to be catching on. The International Wine Academy of Roma is organising an evening on Thursday, April 27, dedicated to the 'Love Match: Tea & Wine' at its historic location in the heart of Rome. Those who sign up for the evening after paying 20 euros will spend an hour and a half in the gracious company of Carla Massi, reporter of the daily newspaper Il Messaggero , and author of a wonderfully successful book on tea, L'ora del te .

They'll taste some special teas prepared by Babington's, Rome's finest and oldest tea house. The gathering will then proceed to compare the noble beverage, and the world's most consumed drink, to wine, because the two, as Kapur keeps telling us, actually have more in common than we might think! It all starts with fermentation ... .

The Academy was launched in October 2002 in the prestigious setting of Il Palazzetto, overlooking the Spanish Steps in the very heart of Rome. It is located on the ground floor of the Palazzetto, a beautiful 19th-century, four- storey building that also houses its own restaurant, wine bar, and hotel rooms.

Both the Academy and Il Palazzetto are owned by Roberto Wirth, the Academy President, who's also the owner of the world-famous Hassler Hotel in Rome (which is represented in Delhi by the Travertino restaurant at The Oberoi). The idea driving the Academy is the same that animated the Academie du Vin, originally founded in Paris in 1973 by Steven Spurrier, who is one of the world's best-known wine writers and certainly one of the foremost experts of Bordeaux. He is the Consultant Editor of Decanter magazine and is the Vice-President of the Wine Academy in Rome.